I played three games last shabbat:
Anagrams: I was invited to the house of a family that I didn't know (we were put together by a mutual friend). While walking there, it came up that I played games, and that the wife played Scrabble and Anagrams. I mentioned that I tend to not find people who can play at my level, which was interpreted as a challenge. It was, I suppose. A few weeks ago I mentioned the same thing to a different couple whom I entertained at lunch for the first time; we played Anagrams and we all did about equally. I was pleased, since Anagrams is a game you really want to play with people who are about the same skill level as you.
So I played Anagrams with the wife after dinner, and she cleaned my clock. First off, I tend to draw tiles from the bag slowly; if I don't see an immediate match or letter for which I'm waiting, I scan the words trying to think of ways to rearrange them with one or multiple letters. This takes me some time. So I draw a tile and then hesitate for up to 30 seconds before drawing the next tile.
This was terribly frustrating for her. She fired me as tile drawer and started drawing tiles every five seconds. I think this speed tends to favor shorter words comprised of the tiles in the center. But she was still able to store in her brain the specific letters she was waiting for and the words to which to apply them; I wasn't able to do it that fast. I think I ended with three words to her fifteen or so.
Glen More: After playing this at Eitan and Emily, I asked Ken to pick me up a copy which I received this week. It's a nifty game engine. After playing twice, I still don't understand the implications of skipping tiles, but I kind of started to get an idea about it that I can flesh out during my next play. There are only a certain number of tiles, and you don't get to go until everyone else has passed your tile; skipping not only makes that take longer, but it gives other people free turns. I'll get it eventually. And, because of the rest of the tile laying mechanics and random tile order, there will still be a lot of game to play.
I played with Abraham and Sarah after lunch. I thought I had very bad sente during the game, but I only lost 52 to Abraham's 58. Sarah had 51.
Homesteaders: After playing with Abraham and Sarah's baby for a while, we wanted to play another game. This time I thought I was doing well, but I still lost out to Abraham in a close game. I took a third round Gold Mine, but it couldn't compete with Abraham's second round Steel Mill (even though Sarah took the other Gold Mine). Abraham had 68, I had 58, Sarah had 52 (or something like that).
Showing posts with label anagrams. Show all posts
Showing posts with label anagrams. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
Tuesday, March 08, 2011
Simultaneous Play: Where Winning Doesn't Matter
Set is a card game. Every card has an abstract picture. Cards are flipped over and players try to be the first and fastest to note and claim a "set": three cards that match exactly, or differ on all three cards, in four characteristics: color, shape, number, and fill. At the end of the game, the player who has collected the most sets "wins".
Anagrams is a tile game. Every tile has a letter. Tiles are flipped over and players try to be the first and fastest to note and claim words: either by anagramming the loose tiles in the center of the table, or by fitting a loose letter into a rearranged word currently claimed by a player. At the end of the game, the player who has collected the most words (or letters, or points on letters) "wins".
In both games, all players play simultaneously. As each tile or card is revealed, players quickly scan the field in hopes of being the one to announce a valid pattern. Each claim is a victory, a "win". The first to find the pattern and take it claims a victory, but the gain doesn't give the player any further advantage toward claiming the next match . The next set of tiles or cards is a fresh opportunity for every player; each round is unique. The game doesn't really end, except by the limit artificially imposed by the number of cards or tiles.
By the time the game is over, it doesn't seem to matter much who "won" the game in any conventional sense. I never count the sets at the end of a game of Set. I don't even know what scoring method to use for Anagrams.
Anagrams is a tile game. Every tile has a letter. Tiles are flipped over and players try to be the first and fastest to note and claim words: either by anagramming the loose tiles in the center of the table, or by fitting a loose letter into a rearranged word currently claimed by a player. At the end of the game, the player who has collected the most words (or letters, or points on letters) "wins".
In both games, all players play simultaneously. As each tile or card is revealed, players quickly scan the field in hopes of being the one to announce a valid pattern. Each claim is a victory, a "win". The first to find the pattern and take it claims a victory, but the gain doesn't give the player any further advantage toward claiming the next match . The next set of tiles or cards is a fresh opportunity for every player; each round is unique. The game doesn't really end, except by the limit artificially imposed by the number of cards or tiles.
By the time the game is over, it doesn't seem to matter much who "won" the game in any conventional sense. I never count the sets at the end of a game of Set. I don't even know what scoring method to use for Anagrams.
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Shabbat Gaming
Anagrams
Yael is a friend of mine and my wife's for multiple reasons. She's brilliant, beautiful, creative, and charismatic. She recently published a fantastic book that took ten years of research: Nehama Leibowitz: Teacher and Bible Scholar.
And she's also been a Settlers of Catan fanatic for the last five years or so, ever since I introduced her to the game. For a long time she didn't want to play any other games; she would only play SoC with her friends on the other side of town, and didn't come to the game group. Only recently I've gotten her to try Amun Re, which she also liked and which she asked to play Friday evening after dinner.
Unfortunately, I don't actually have a copy of the game, and it was only two of us and late (Rachel went out to walk the dog). So we played Anagrams. She was good, which is good.
Anagrams and Set are two games that I'm pretty good at, sometimes too good at. I don't like to win either of these two games by too much, as it's discouraging to play them unless you feel like you're playing with a reasonably matched opponent. If I'm winning by too much, I will sometimes slow down a bit and let my opponent catch up. I didn't have to do that with Yael.
Only these two games, really; maybe sports, too. I think it's because they're straight measurable ability based games that hit a certain area of the brain. After it's clear that you're faster than the other person in that particular area, there's really no point in continuing.
Of course, I've also met people who can beat me in either of these games; I don't mind that at all.
By the way, Yael is - incredibly - still single. Time's a-wasting, guys.
Robo Rally
I had promised to introduce Tal's friend Nechemia to a board game, and Nadine also stayed after lunch. Robo Rally was the right length of time and weight for the occasion.
I chose a simple board with a few tricky spots, and three flags. I was liberal with "reprogramming" in the first the rounds, and we played with infinite deaths and no options. It was a little repetitive, but still quite fun.
Nechemia won without ever getting a single point of damage, as he took a slightly different route than the rest of us did. Silly and fun game, if it doesn't go on too long.
Puerto Rico
Nadine, Rachel, and I played our final game before Rachel leaves for the US (Rachel will still be here two more shabbatot, but we won't be able to play on them). I switched Small Market's and Construction Hut's costs.
Playing third player, I had to decide whether to spend 2 for Small Market on round 1 phase 2. I opted to pass in favor of Construction Hut, which I would otherwise never buy. Nadine, as first player took Indigo Plant.
Round 2 then went rather crazy. Rachel took builder again, and Nadine took Small Market with her manned quarry. I took Craftsman and Nadine left me both Trader and Captain for round 3 with two coins. I took Trader and felt like I now had a decent start.
I got a coffee monopoly, and never produced more than 1 coffee and 2 corns the entire game. Nadine had tobacco, Small and Large Markets, and Discretionary Hold. Rachel had Small Market, Small Warehouse, and lots of the three cheaper goods.
My strategy was to trade coffee and build quickly. I ended three big buildings.
Last move of the game, I had to decide whether to man my third big building and also Nadine's only big building. It would give me 5 points, but I didn't know how much it would give Nadine. Or, I could take Settler and a plantation for 2 bonus points (for Fairgrounds). I opted to man the buildings.
Final scores: me 45, Rachel 43, Nadine 42 . If I hadn't manned the buildings, final scores would have been: Rachel 43, Jon 42, Nadine 38.
Yael is a friend of mine and my wife's for multiple reasons. She's brilliant, beautiful, creative, and charismatic. She recently published a fantastic book that took ten years of research: Nehama Leibowitz: Teacher and Bible Scholar.
And she's also been a Settlers of Catan fanatic for the last five years or so, ever since I introduced her to the game. For a long time she didn't want to play any other games; she would only play SoC with her friends on the other side of town, and didn't come to the game group. Only recently I've gotten her to try Amun Re, which she also liked and which she asked to play Friday evening after dinner.
Unfortunately, I don't actually have a copy of the game, and it was only two of us and late (Rachel went out to walk the dog). So we played Anagrams. She was good, which is good.
Anagrams and Set are two games that I'm pretty good at, sometimes too good at. I don't like to win either of these two games by too much, as it's discouraging to play them unless you feel like you're playing with a reasonably matched opponent. If I'm winning by too much, I will sometimes slow down a bit and let my opponent catch up. I didn't have to do that with Yael.
Only these two games, really; maybe sports, too. I think it's because they're straight measurable ability based games that hit a certain area of the brain. After it's clear that you're faster than the other person in that particular area, there's really no point in continuing.
Of course, I've also met people who can beat me in either of these games; I don't mind that at all.
By the way, Yael is - incredibly - still single. Time's a-wasting, guys.
Robo Rally
I had promised to introduce Tal's friend Nechemia to a board game, and Nadine also stayed after lunch. Robo Rally was the right length of time and weight for the occasion.
I chose a simple board with a few tricky spots, and three flags. I was liberal with "reprogramming" in the first the rounds, and we played with infinite deaths and no options. It was a little repetitive, but still quite fun.
Nechemia won without ever getting a single point of damage, as he took a slightly different route than the rest of us did. Silly and fun game, if it doesn't go on too long.
Puerto Rico
Nadine, Rachel, and I played our final game before Rachel leaves for the US (Rachel will still be here two more shabbatot, but we won't be able to play on them). I switched Small Market's and Construction Hut's costs.
Playing third player, I had to decide whether to spend 2 for Small Market on round 1 phase 2. I opted to pass in favor of Construction Hut, which I would otherwise never buy. Nadine, as first player took Indigo Plant.
Round 2 then went rather crazy. Rachel took builder again, and Nadine took Small Market with her manned quarry. I took Craftsman and Nadine left me both Trader and Captain for round 3 with two coins. I took Trader and felt like I now had a decent start.
I got a coffee monopoly, and never produced more than 1 coffee and 2 corns the entire game. Nadine had tobacco, Small and Large Markets, and Discretionary Hold. Rachel had Small Market, Small Warehouse, and lots of the three cheaper goods.
My strategy was to trade coffee and build quickly. I ended three big buildings.
Last move of the game, I had to decide whether to man my third big building and also Nadine's only big building. It would give me 5 points, but I didn't know how much it would give Nadine. Or, I could take Settler and a plantation for 2 bonus points (for Fairgrounds). I opted to man the buildings.
Final scores: me 45, Rachel 43, Nadine 42 . If I hadn't manned the buildings, final scores would have been: Rachel 43, Jon 42, Nadine 38.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Solo Anagrams
Drawn 7 Scrabble tiles and make a 7 letter word. You can swap any 1 tile, and can swap up to 3 times. Score = (values on all tiles - 7) x (4 - the number of swaps you made).
Yesterday evening I ran out the door to catch a bus arranged to take members of our community to a wedding in Afula. I had to grab a game but didn't have time to think what to grab. Should have taken a deck of cards, I guess. I grabbed my bag of Scrabble tiles. I guess I thought we could play Anagrams on the bus, but it wasn't the kind of bus with any flat surfaces. So I invented this and played by myself until twilight fell.
At the hall I Youtubed videos of early Bob, Joni, and Judy, as well as some Flight of the Conchords, to watch on the way back.
Yesterday evening I ran out the door to catch a bus arranged to take members of our community to a wedding in Afula. I had to grab a game but didn't have time to think what to grab. Should have taken a deck of cards, I guess. I grabbed my bag of Scrabble tiles. I guess I thought we could play Anagrams on the bus, but it wasn't the kind of bus with any flat surfaces. So I invented this and played by myself until twilight fell.
At the hall I Youtubed videos of early Bob, Joni, and Judy, as well as some Flight of the Conchords, to watch on the way back.
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Anagrams Still Pleases
Anagrams, the older but better word game that comes in a Scrabble box, is sometimes able to please my non-gaming guests on Friday night. Assuming they evidence any interest in a gaming activity at all.
I'm pretty good at the game, so in order not to make it frustrating for newer players, I pretend not to see certain words, especially the most obvious ones. The most obvious ones, because most of the time another player will find them within a few seconds.
Sometimes, though, I start the game doing this only to find that one or more of my opponents is actually just as good as I am, or nearly as good. Such was the case last night. One of my guests was nearly as good, and did some excellent anagramming. We ended the game fairly close in word counts. The other player wasn't quite so good, but neither did she have anything to be ashamed of, getting in a number of excellent anagrams that I didn't notice.
Which is one of the joys of Anagrams over Scrabble; clever words are still enjoyed. Not just high scoring plays.
I'm pretty good at the game, so in order not to make it frustrating for newer players, I pretend not to see certain words, especially the most obvious ones. The most obvious ones, because most of the time another player will find them within a few seconds.
Sometimes, though, I start the game doing this only to find that one or more of my opponents is actually just as good as I am, or nearly as good. Such was the case last night. One of my guests was nearly as good, and did some excellent anagramming. We ended the game fairly close in word counts. The other player wasn't quite so good, but neither did she have anything to be ashamed of, getting in a number of excellent anagrams that I didn't notice.
Which is one of the joys of Anagrams over Scrabble; clever words are still enjoyed. Not just high scoring plays.
Sunday, March 02, 2008
Anagrams
AnagramsAside from two Puerto Rico games with Rachel (both ties), the only other game I've played on this vacation is Anagrams. Anagrams is the Eurogame version of Scrabble.
Anagrams is a game for 2 or more players. It takes about 30 minutes and there are no turns; everyone plays all the time. You can win right up to the very end of the game, and, while a good vocabulary helps, it is less of an issue than it is in Scrabble. More important is a quick pattern matching ability.
You can play Anagrams with any old Scrabble set. You don't use the board or racks.
Players sit in a circle. Flip over tiles, one at a time, with a reasonable amount of time between each flip. If you flip the blank tile, discard it.
Whenever you see a word that can be formed using the flipped tiles, simply call out the word. If you are first to call out a valid word, take the tiles and arrange them into a word in front of you, facing you.
In addition, whenever you see a word that can be formed using at least one flipped tile added to an existing word - yours or someone else's - you can call out the word and take the new word into your area. The new word must be of a different root - it can't simply be adding an "s" or "ed" or somesuch to the word. It must make an entirely new word. E.g. you can't steal a word by adding an "s" to "lair" to make "lairs", but you can call out the word "liars" to steal the word, because it is a new word ("liar" and not "lair").
You cannot break words into multiple words. You can combine two words into one entirely new word, so long as it uses one additional flipped tile from the center.
The game ends when the tiles run out and no new words can be found. There are many ways to score: length of words, number of words, number of tiles, points on tiles, and so on. But the game is one that doesn't demand any rigorous scoring; the play it all the fun.
At the beginning, it's easy to steal words and form anagrams. But as the game goes on and dozens of words litter the board, it's hard to wrap your head around all the words in play. At that point, you're usually best just focusing on the one letter you've been waiting for all game that will transform "trace" into "crated". If two people are waiting for the same letter to use in different words, you better be on the ball!
Anagrams is not a new game. Scrabble players have been playing it for ages as a way to hone up their Scrabble skills, but versions of the game actually predate Scrabble.
It's fast, fun, challenging, engaging, and often silly. And it's so easy to play and explain; anyone can join or leave the game while it's in progress without ruining the fun.
I taught it to two couples, all totally non-gamers, this Friday night who immediately took to it and had a blast. It's one of my top ten games; I'll always suggest it and I'll play it anytime.
Sunday, October 08, 2006
A New Bidding System for Bridge
Bridge
Friday evening I roped David Elkins, Ari who has come to the game group occasionally, and my Mom for a bridge game. We played for an hour or so. David and I played together, because we have a special system.
A special system? you ask. And what, pray tell, is our special system?
Come listen in to our description of the system that we laid out during the bidding. The players are Ari (A), David (D), Mom (M), and me (Y).
A: Pass.
D: Pass.
M: Pass.
Y: 1 diamond.
D: Alert.
M: What does 1 diamond mean?
D: 11 to 15 points and a 5 card minor.
A: What system are you playing?
Y: You've heard of Standard American?
A: Yes.
Y: And Precision?
A: Yes.
Y: Well we call this system "Im-precision".
A: ?
Y: *twinkle* See, we found the traditional bidding systems to be overly difficult. We worked very hard in creating a new bidding system that was easier to work with, and we came up with this one, which we found dramatically increases our playing success.
A: ?
Y: See in the traditional bidding system, a bid of one indicates that you need to get seven tricks or you go down. In our system, a bid of one only means that you need to get five tricks. As you can see, that makes it much easier to succeed.
A: Uh ...
M: Wait a minute.
D: Yes, also every bid is a game. Or slam. That gives us bonus points.
A: So, if you bid 4 hearts, and we make 4 tricks, then you're saying that we set you but you still made the contract?
Y: Oh, no. You didn't set us, because we only had to make 8 tricks. Also, we don't lose any points if we don't make our bid in our system.
D: Yes, we can only win points.
Y: Exactly. We find this whole competitive thing, you know, winning and losing, isn't good for our self-esteem. So we can't lose points in our system. We only get points, no matter what we make.
D: Or what we bid.
Y: Exactly. We're thinking of renaming the system to be the "Happy Self-Esteem" bidding system.
A: ...
Y: By the way, it's your bid.
Give it a try, boys and girls. But remember, it's patent pending.
Anagrams
Sat afternoon I played with David, who I may remind you was once the Israeli Scrabble champion. As such, his vocabulary includes thousands of words that I still don't remember. However, my pattern recognition ability is pretty good, so I do well at Anagrams.
At the end, we both had roughly the same amount of words, tiles, and probably points, but since we didn't agree on a scoring method, we can't say exactly who won according to the traditional method of scoring.
Nevertheless, we both agreed that I won, because I took a "U" and a "P" from the middle of the table and rearranged LOCATION to form a much better word.
Yehuda
- More on games in the real world, Geospacial Semantic talks about location-based board games, which are board games using live players.
- Luchabra describes an interesting looking new abstract game. I like the way he also adds a number of optional themes that can be tacked on, for those that need one.
- GROGnads points out a few interesting books, including two by Tom Vasel in collaboration??? Here's the third. I must get to the bottom of this. Oh, To-ommmm!
- Also pointed out on BGG, the Mathematica Journal tackles board game design.
Friday evening I roped David Elkins, Ari who has come to the game group occasionally, and my Mom for a bridge game. We played for an hour or so. David and I played together, because we have a special system.
A special system? you ask. And what, pray tell, is our special system?
Come listen in to our description of the system that we laid out during the bidding. The players are Ari (A), David (D), Mom (M), and me (Y).
A: Pass.
D: Pass.
M: Pass.
Y: 1 diamond.
D: Alert.
M: What does 1 diamond mean?
D: 11 to 15 points and a 5 card minor.
A: What system are you playing?
Y: You've heard of Standard American?
A: Yes.
Y: And Precision?
A: Yes.
Y: Well we call this system "Im-precision".
A: ?
Y: *twinkle* See, we found the traditional bidding systems to be overly difficult. We worked very hard in creating a new bidding system that was easier to work with, and we came up with this one, which we found dramatically increases our playing success.
A: ?
Y: See in the traditional bidding system, a bid of one indicates that you need to get seven tricks or you go down. In our system, a bid of one only means that you need to get five tricks. As you can see, that makes it much easier to succeed.
A: Uh ...
M: Wait a minute.
D: Yes, also every bid is a game. Or slam. That gives us bonus points.
A: So, if you bid 4 hearts, and we make 4 tricks, then you're saying that we set you but you still made the contract?
Y: Oh, no. You didn't set us, because we only had to make 8 tricks. Also, we don't lose any points if we don't make our bid in our system.
D: Yes, we can only win points.
Y: Exactly. We find this whole competitive thing, you know, winning and losing, isn't good for our self-esteem. So we can't lose points in our system. We only get points, no matter what we make.
D: Or what we bid.
Y: Exactly. We're thinking of renaming the system to be the "Happy Self-Esteem" bidding system.
A: ...
Y: By the way, it's your bid.
Give it a try, boys and girls. But remember, it's patent pending.
Anagrams
Sat afternoon I played with David, who I may remind you was once the Israeli Scrabble champion. As such, his vocabulary includes thousands of words that I still don't remember. However, my pattern recognition ability is pretty good, so I do well at Anagrams.
At the end, we both had roughly the same amount of words, tiles, and probably points, but since we didn't agree on a scoring method, we can't say exactly who won according to the traditional method of scoring.
Nevertheless, we both agreed that I won, because I took a "U" and a "P" from the middle of the table and rearranged LOCATION to form a much better word.
Yehuda
- More on games in the real world, Geospacial Semantic talks about location-based board games, which are board games using live players.
- Luchabra describes an interesting looking new abstract game. I like the way he also adds a number of optional themes that can be tacked on, for those that need one.
- GROGnads points out a few interesting books, including two by Tom Vasel in collaboration??? Here's the third. I must get to the bottom of this. Oh, To-ommmm!
- Also pointed out on BGG, the Mathematica Journal tackles board game design.
Tuesday, April 25, 2006
Ahhh
Not only was Blogger inaccessible yesterday, all Google services other than Gmail were also inaccessible for several hours. So were a whole slew of other sites. Yahoo I could reach. Technorati I couldn't.
My ISP said that there were general problems. Usually when a link is down to the States, all sites are down, not only a cross-section of IP numbers. It was spooky.
This week is TV turn off week. Grab a board game.
Last night I played Anagrams with myself while Tal finished her homework and Rachel was too tired to play Scrabble. Anagrams with yourself is still a challenge, but you just know that you are missing words that a competent opponent would be finding. It's those words that you missed but should have found that can make a real game of Anagrams most interesting.
Afterwards, Tal and I played Oh Hell which once again came down to the last round. She won when I was forced to bid 1 and lost.
Apparently, her classmates now play card games during recess, and Tal has them all playing Oh Hell. What card game should I teach her next?
Yehuda
My ISP said that there were general problems. Usually when a link is down to the States, all sites are down, not only a cross-section of IP numbers. It was spooky.
This week is TV turn off week. Grab a board game.
Last night I played Anagrams with myself while Tal finished her homework and Rachel was too tired to play Scrabble. Anagrams with yourself is still a challenge, but you just know that you are missing words that a competent opponent would be finding. It's those words that you missed but should have found that can make a real game of Anagrams most interesting.
Afterwards, Tal and I played Oh Hell which once again came down to the last round. She won when I was forced to bid 1 and lost.
Apparently, her classmates now play card games during recess, and Tal has them all playing Oh Hell. What card game should I teach her next?
Yehuda
Sunday, October 30, 2005
BGG.con: Saturday, Oct 29
A story is told of a rabbi who was always careful to ensure that guests in his house suffered no embarrassment. Once a guest spilled wine on his expensive tablecloth. The rabbi immediately and surreptitiously knocked over his own wine glass and said, "This table has a wobble." The guest was thus spared embarrassment.
My friend made challah for shabbat, but was unhappy with the results: the dough didn't rise enough, and she believed that she burnt it on top of that. So when I was making cookies, I "accidentally" dropped the tray onto the door of the stove which is angled slightly inwards. The tray slid onto the bottom of the stove, the wax paper slid off the tray onto the heating coils, and the whole thing burst into lovely flames. I did this so as to make her feel better about the challah. That's my story and I'm sticking with it.
Dinner was out at some fellow shul members. Arriving at the hosts' house, I noticed the first game on the floor: Barbie Game. Like Monopoly and Life, but far dumber. I decided to play a round of it, just for fun and so that I could have the privilege of rating it.
I then did my usual. I took the die and said, "Here's a better game you can play, with more meaningful decisions it only takes five minutes, and requires nothing more than a single die." Roll the die trying to get all numbers 1 to 6. You can roll as many times as you want and then pass the die, saving your results. If you get a duplicate, you lose everything that you haven't previously saved.
So easy, and so simple to teach.
The following day, before lunch, I played my game prototype with my one of my friends. Both of them hate the temporary name of the prototype ("Light My Menorah") and don't like using a Jewish theme, saying that it will scare off potential publishers. Can't please everyone.
Later in the day I went with him to play Scrabble at a neighbors. My friend is a champion Scrabble player, and so is the neighbor, it turns out. When we got there, the neighbor was deep into a game with yet another neighbor. Both using all of those ridiculous two and three letter words. They each had a copy of the new official words as of October 2005. It's like the latest expansion set from Magic the Gathering.
My friend and I played Anagrams, which I almost won, until he finally managed to steal two of my words at the last moment. Then we played quick Scrabble, which I lost by 80 points, him having had a 70 point bingo and a 50 point double OX with the X on a triple letter. Aside from those two moves, I played better, as any fool can see from the scores. :-)
Sat night I dragged them to a house concert by Richard Berman. Now, I went through the papers of the previous week and there was nothing about this house concert in there. I had heard about it on Musi-cal. There was lots in the paper about U2, Hall and Oats, Styx and Def Leppard, etc. all of which were $50, $100, etc... U2 probably would have been worth it.
This house concert was simply amazing. For $10, I sat in a room with 10 other people, up front and personal, hearing what amounted to a perfect evening of music. He plays lovely guitar, his voice sounds like James Taylor, and his words are personal, sometimes funny, sometimes serious. Like all great house concerts, he occasionally forgot some words, and we all schmoozed around during the break. It turns out that he knows a folk-singing friend of mine from Israel. Small world.
See? Sometimes you can save money and still get the best.
Still experiencing jet-lag.
Yehuda
My friend made challah for shabbat, but was unhappy with the results: the dough didn't rise enough, and she believed that she burnt it on top of that. So when I was making cookies, I "accidentally" dropped the tray onto the door of the stove which is angled slightly inwards. The tray slid onto the bottom of the stove, the wax paper slid off the tray onto the heating coils, and the whole thing burst into lovely flames. I did this so as to make her feel better about the challah. That's my story and I'm sticking with it.
Dinner was out at some fellow shul members. Arriving at the hosts' house, I noticed the first game on the floor: Barbie Game. Like Monopoly and Life, but far dumber. I decided to play a round of it, just for fun and so that I could have the privilege of rating it.
I then did my usual. I took the die and said, "Here's a better game you can play, with more meaningful decisions it only takes five minutes, and requires nothing more than a single die." Roll the die trying to get all numbers 1 to 6. You can roll as many times as you want and then pass the die, saving your results. If you get a duplicate, you lose everything that you haven't previously saved.
So easy, and so simple to teach.
The following day, before lunch, I played my game prototype with my one of my friends. Both of them hate the temporary name of the prototype ("Light My Menorah") and don't like using a Jewish theme, saying that it will scare off potential publishers. Can't please everyone.
Later in the day I went with him to play Scrabble at a neighbors. My friend is a champion Scrabble player, and so is the neighbor, it turns out. When we got there, the neighbor was deep into a game with yet another neighbor. Both using all of those ridiculous two and three letter words. They each had a copy of the new official words as of October 2005. It's like the latest expansion set from Magic the Gathering.
My friend and I played Anagrams, which I almost won, until he finally managed to steal two of my words at the last moment. Then we played quick Scrabble, which I lost by 80 points, him having had a 70 point bingo and a 50 point double OX with the X on a triple letter. Aside from those two moves, I played better, as any fool can see from the scores. :-)
Sat night I dragged them to a house concert by Richard Berman. Now, I went through the papers of the previous week and there was nothing about this house concert in there. I had heard about it on Musi-cal. There was lots in the paper about U2, Hall and Oats, Styx and Def Leppard, etc. all of which were $50, $100, etc... U2 probably would have been worth it.
This house concert was simply amazing. For $10, I sat in a room with 10 other people, up front and personal, hearing what amounted to a perfect evening of music. He plays lovely guitar, his voice sounds like James Taylor, and his words are personal, sometimes funny, sometimes serious. Like all great house concerts, he occasionally forgot some words, and we all schmoozed around during the break. It turns out that he knows a folk-singing friend of mine from Israel. Small world.
See? Sometimes you can save money and still get the best.
Still experiencing jet-lag.
Yehuda
Wednesday, April 20, 2005
Vacation
Well, the vacation was nice, but not really relaxing.
The first day was a drive up, followed by a short hike, lost in the woods, running away from a bunch of cows and bulls (who weren't chasing us, except in the mind of my daughter), a Bar-B-Q and some late night games.
When the other family arrived, they played some hands of Gin while I played Anagrams with David, the father, the Scrabble expert. He has a voluminous knowledge of short words, but I am quicker on the draw and more creative. Both of us have certain letters we are waiting for in order to steal a word or two. It was a tough match, but I gained a good lead, and only lost most of it by the end.
Later at night I introduced their 19 year old son Yoni to Tigris and Euphrates, which I can't seem to break out at the game night (I thought that they liked it when we first played, but I think it may be too dry for them). Anyway, I played with Saarya and Yoni an enjoyable game. Yoni really liked it, and we thought he was going to win after he put down a monument and nobody seemed to be in a position to challenge him. I lost huge when I challenged Saarya twice in my turn, once to an external conflict and once to an internal one. Out of the six tiles he had he could only beat me if he had exactly 3 black tiles and 3 red tiles. Guess what? ... Saarya ended up winning 8 to 7 to 6 (me). I was about to go to 8 myself.
Late at night, my daughter played Pop, some sort of pencil and paper game that works with both Hebrew and English letters. Players alternate placing "p"s and "peh" (Hebrew version of "p") in various places and then placing "o"s and "vav"s (Hebrew version of "o") between places making the word "pop" in Hebrew or English. I don't know the rest of the rules, but I will try to find out.
The next day, Monday, we split up into various groups, water hiking, horseback riding, winery, and a great dinner at night. Too tired for games.
The last day, Tuesday, was a bust, since no one was willing to commit to anything except what they didn't want to do, leaving everyone hanging until the day was basically over. I started a Scrabble game at one point which I was losing at by about 40 points, but never finished it.
This week is the rest of cleaning and then cooking for Passover, so probably not much in the way of games. Next week is game day, however, if all goes well.
Happy Passover, to one and all, and may your life be meaningful and peaceful.
Yehuda
The first day was a drive up, followed by a short hike, lost in the woods, running away from a bunch of cows and bulls (who weren't chasing us, except in the mind of my daughter), a Bar-B-Q and some late night games.
When the other family arrived, they played some hands of Gin while I played Anagrams with David, the father, the Scrabble expert. He has a voluminous knowledge of short words, but I am quicker on the draw and more creative. Both of us have certain letters we are waiting for in order to steal a word or two. It was a tough match, but I gained a good lead, and only lost most of it by the end.
Later at night I introduced their 19 year old son Yoni to Tigris and Euphrates, which I can't seem to break out at the game night (I thought that they liked it when we first played, but I think it may be too dry for them). Anyway, I played with Saarya and Yoni an enjoyable game. Yoni really liked it, and we thought he was going to win after he put down a monument and nobody seemed to be in a position to challenge him. I lost huge when I challenged Saarya twice in my turn, once to an external conflict and once to an internal one. Out of the six tiles he had he could only beat me if he had exactly 3 black tiles and 3 red tiles. Guess what? ... Saarya ended up winning 8 to 7 to 6 (me). I was about to go to 8 myself.
Late at night, my daughter played Pop, some sort of pencil and paper game that works with both Hebrew and English letters. Players alternate placing "p"s and "peh" (Hebrew version of "p") in various places and then placing "o"s and "vav"s (Hebrew version of "o") between places making the word "pop" in Hebrew or English. I don't know the rest of the rules, but I will try to find out.
The next day, Monday, we split up into various groups, water hiking, horseback riding, winery, and a great dinner at night. Too tired for games.
The last day, Tuesday, was a bust, since no one was willing to commit to anything except what they didn't want to do, leaving everyone hanging until the day was basically over. I started a Scrabble game at one point which I was losing at by about 40 points, but never finished it.
This week is the rest of cleaning and then cooking for Passover, so probably not much in the way of games. Next week is game day, however, if all goes well.
Happy Passover, to one and all, and may your life be meaningful and peaceful.
Yehuda
Sunday, January 23, 2005
Rules mistakes, games played.
OK, it turns out that I'm not the best rules reader. Someone else should really check me.
Traumfabrik: Reading more carefully, it seems that the extra indivisible amount of contracts ends up in the middle of the board, and not on each particular space. These extra contracts are added to and divided along with the next bid.
Geschenkt: The original rule was that the player who wins the bid starts bidding on the next card. We all seemed to think that this is a terrible idea, because if you take a card with no tokens, and you have no tokens, you must take all of the remaining cards in the game. Well someone on BGG pointed out the should-have-been-obvious to me: This is impossible. The first player to play has 11 tokens. Every time you take a card, if you weren't the one that flipped it, it must have at least one token on it. Ergo, you will always have at least one token to play.
Last Wed's session report on my website, as usual.
Thursday I played my usual 2 player PR with expansion buildings with my wife, Rachel. Some buildings are just included standard, now: Large Business (privilege of Captain and Builder) instead of Harbor; Small Wharf, or something equivalent, instead of Large Warehouse; Small Fashion District (sell indigo at +2), or equiv, instead of Construction Hut; also replacements for University and Office, whatever comes up. Very typical buildings include Large General Production Building (8/3, produce two of anything with corresponding plantations), Exchange House (swap barrels with Trading House at the ed of the Trader phase (a good answer to LGPB, but somewhat powerful in 2 player)), Surveyor's House (2/1 choose any plantation from supply, instead of turned up one), plus a few variant large buildings (vps for building types, or plantation types, of empty spaces or circles, etc...)
Shabbat I played.
- Traumfabrik twice, this time with the correct rules. The first time intruducing my daughter aged 11 and her friend and my mom to the game. They enjoyed it. The second time introducing my friend and several other guys in their teens. They also liked it.
- Anagrams, twice. Tough games, playing with my friend, who won the National Scrabble tournament, once. I lost the first game, closely, but won the second game even more closely (something like 49 to 47 tiles). While he has a ridiculously larger vocabulary for dumb words (like eau, aquae, and zoea), I am a hair quicker on the draw, better prepare myself for particular letters I am on the lookout for, and not bad at anagramming, myself.
- Dvonn. First time play, I was wondering if it would suffer from the same problem that I have with the games I tend to design, namely that there are so many choices that it seems random. Fortunately, while it did seem a little random, that was more because I had no idea what I was doing, rather than that I had too many choices. Nevertheless, any game where all pieces are essentially shared, is very hard to wrap your brain around. For the rules, see BGG.
We place our pieces, and I thought I was doing better since I had more pieces on the outside and therefore more liberty and choices. It didn't help, as gradually all of my pieces were either recaptured or simply removed from the board. I had a wipeout at the end, with no pieces left. Ugh.
- Torres. My friend tried it, and surprisingly to me, didn't really like it.
Yehuda
Traumfabrik: Reading more carefully, it seems that the extra indivisible amount of contracts ends up in the middle of the board, and not on each particular space. These extra contracts are added to and divided along with the next bid.
Geschenkt: The original rule was that the player who wins the bid starts bidding on the next card. We all seemed to think that this is a terrible idea, because if you take a card with no tokens, and you have no tokens, you must take all of the remaining cards in the game. Well someone on BGG pointed out the should-have-been-obvious to me: This is impossible. The first player to play has 11 tokens. Every time you take a card, if you weren't the one that flipped it, it must have at least one token on it. Ergo, you will always have at least one token to play.
Last Wed's session report on my website, as usual.
Thursday I played my usual 2 player PR with expansion buildings with my wife, Rachel. Some buildings are just included standard, now: Large Business (privilege of Captain and Builder) instead of Harbor; Small Wharf, or something equivalent, instead of Large Warehouse; Small Fashion District (sell indigo at +2), or equiv, instead of Construction Hut; also replacements for University and Office, whatever comes up. Very typical buildings include Large General Production Building (8/3, produce two of anything with corresponding plantations), Exchange House (swap barrels with Trading House at the ed of the Trader phase (a good answer to LGPB, but somewhat powerful in 2 player)), Surveyor's House (2/1 choose any plantation from supply, instead of turned up one), plus a few variant large buildings (vps for building types, or plantation types, of empty spaces or circles, etc...)
Shabbat I played.
- Traumfabrik twice, this time with the correct rules. The first time intruducing my daughter aged 11 and her friend and my mom to the game. They enjoyed it. The second time introducing my friend and several other guys in their teens. They also liked it.
- Anagrams, twice. Tough games, playing with my friend, who won the National Scrabble tournament, once. I lost the first game, closely, but won the second game even more closely (something like 49 to 47 tiles). While he has a ridiculously larger vocabulary for dumb words (like eau, aquae, and zoea), I am a hair quicker on the draw, better prepare myself for particular letters I am on the lookout for, and not bad at anagramming, myself.
- Dvonn. First time play, I was wondering if it would suffer from the same problem that I have with the games I tend to design, namely that there are so many choices that it seems random. Fortunately, while it did seem a little random, that was more because I had no idea what I was doing, rather than that I had too many choices. Nevertheless, any game where all pieces are essentially shared, is very hard to wrap your brain around. For the rules, see BGG.
We place our pieces, and I thought I was doing better since I had more pieces on the outside and therefore more liberty and choices. It didn't help, as gradually all of my pieces were either recaptured or simply removed from the board. I had a wipeout at the end, with no pieces left. Ugh.
- Torres. My friend tried it, and surprisingly to me, didn't really like it.
Yehuda
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